


did you see this coming?

by books_and_spite



Category: The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
Genre: Fake Character Death, Friendship/Love, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27115795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/books_and_spite/pseuds/books_and_spite
Summary: August Sader is supposed to be dead.But he's not, and that is going to fuck up a lot of things.
Relationships: August Sader & Callis (The School for Good and Evil)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	did you see this coming?

“No,” Callis says, and shuts the door in his face.  
  
“I just died,” August protests. “Please. Callis. Let me in.” He could blast open the door with his magic, Callis knows. But he doesn’t. Well, that’s a point in his favour.  
  
“What do you mean you died?” She asks, poking her head back out.   
  
“The School Master tried to kill your adopted daughter and his Good brother returned, possessed me, and killed him, also killing me in the process. And then I woke up in your town graveyard,” he explains.  
  
What has happened?  
  
She scowls at him and opens the door. “Get in before people see you.”  
  
August looks the same as ever, silver hair messy and just the right length, somehow. His hazel eyes are still piercing. Still blind.  
  
Sometimes she thinks she should have listened to him, when he told her not to romance the School Master. Sometimes she thinks she should have gone to him instead. They had been friends.   
  
She doesn’t say any of this, of course. “So, August Sader. You found your way to Gavaldon.”  
  
“I suppose I did,” he agrees.   
  
“What do you want from me?” She sighs.  
  
To his credit, he doesn’t try to deny the fact that he does want something. “Come back to the School for Good and Evil. We need you. Something bad’s about to happen.”  
  
“How do you know that?”   
  
“I know a lot of things.”  
  
Callis laughs. “Do you really think they would accept me? If I came back? Knowing that I was the lover of the creature who I assume tried to murder them all?”  
  
“No one knows what happened,” August says steadily. “No one but me.”  
  
“You and your Sight,” she mutters, maybe a little fondly. “But you’ve given me no reason to come back, August.”  
  
“Your daughter.”  
  
“What?”  
  
August stares at her intensely. “This is her fairy tale, Callis. She is in great danger. He plans to kill all the Good and take the Reader World for his own.”  
  
Callis leans back in her chair, acutely aware of how he’s tapping his fingers on his lap nervously. He never did get rid of that tic, she sees. “What can I do?”  
  
“Everything,” he responds. “You and I. We could change things.”  
  
August extends a hand to her, the way he did on the first day of school when he approached the Nevergirl who looked lonely. “What do you say, Callis of Netherwood?”   
  
She arches an eyebrow. “You make a compelling case, I suppose.” She takes his hand and shakes it firmly. “Now. I want details.”  
  
“You deserve them. By the way, I believe Agatha and Sophie will show up here soon,” he comments.   
  
“What-” Callis begins.  
  
“It’s a long story,” August interrupts.   
  
“Well then, get on with telling it.”  
  
And he does, illustrating the story with magical scenes of the School. Agatha unleashing the Wish Fish, Sophie betraying the Tedros boy, the School Master, August dying, the flash of the two girls kissing and disappearing as he disintegrated. Callis doesn’t know whether to be proud   
or horrified at what her daughter has gone through.  
  
“That is... a lot,” she says faintly.  
  
“It gets worse,” he says.   
  
“Aren’t you going to age if you tell me?” she inquires.  
  
August shakes his head. “I lost the Seer powers, apparently. Which is rather unfortunate. I... did not see this conversation occurring.”  
  
Callis offers, “You died. Maybe that’s why.”  
  
“Yes, I did think of that,” he says dryly.   
  
And then they’re laughing like the children they were, once upon a time. It’s not even that funny. But it is.   
  
“So,” Callis says, once they’ve stopped, “what happens?”  
  
“Remember my sister?”  
  
“Well, fuck,” Callis murmurs.  
  
August sighs. “That is an appropriate response.”  
  
He proceeds to go into detail about how the princes will be thrown out, and even Callis is slightly horrified. “But- the balance-”  
  
“Is gone,” he says. “Callis. We need you.” He hesitates. “I need you.”  
  
“How can I deny such a plea?” She asks archly.   
  
Instead of replying, he tilts his head sharply. “They’re here.”  
  
She peers over his shoulder. Agatha and Sophie are trudging up Graves Hill, laughing and talking. It looks nice.  
  
She lets out a heavy sigh. “They can’t stay this way, can they?”  
“One way or another, they’ll be thrown back into their fairy tale,” August replies. “But at least we   
can choose how.”   
  
“So be it, then,” she says, and gets up to open the door.   
  
\---  
  
The two girls stop short when they see him. Callis would be amused at the comical looks on their faces, in another situation.   
  
“Professor Sader?” Agatha splutters. “Why- what- aren’t you dead?”  
  
Sophie just stares, eyes wide.   
  
August shrugs elegantly. “Apparently not.”  
  
“Do you snark this much when you teach?” Callis inquires. “Because I’m pretty sure they would fire you if you did that.”  
  
August snorts, somehow still managing to retain his dignified aura. “They would have fired you a long time before me if we were like this in class and we both know it.”   
  
Agatha looks at her mother. Then at her professor. Then back at her mother again. She looks hopelessly confused. “What’s happening? Mother? You know Professor Sader?”  
  
“Knew,” Callis corrects.   
  
Sophie frowns, clutching Agatha’s hand. “But haven’t you been here your whole life?”  
  
August turns to her and frowns. “You haven’t told her-?”  
  
“Because that part of my past is not one I am quite willing to talk about yet,” Callis snaps back. Of course, he’s not smart enough to shut up. He never has been. It made him strangely endearing.  
  
“You should,” he says.  
  
“Yes, I think we deserve an explanation about why my dead professor is sitting in our house and talking to you like you’re old friends, and your mysterious past, and everything, Mother,” Agatha snarks, eyeing August warily.   
  
“Sit down,” Callis orders, pulling out stools for them. “It’s a long story.”  
  
“What the fuck is going on?” Sophie mutters under her breath as she sits.   
  
“Language,” August says mildly.   
  
“Rakao,” the Nevergirl responds.  
  
“You really think I don’t know Frost Giant?” August says, just as Callis grumps, “Stop cursing or get out of my house.” Sophie flushes and looks down.  
  
“Mother,” Agatha presses, “I think we need that explanation-”  
  
“Yes, Agatha, I know,” Callis says. “Well. I’m from Netherwood. Ah,” and then she stops because how do you tell your daughter that you almost married the man who tried to kill her?  
  
“Netherwood? Like, from the Woods?” Sophie asks.   
  
“So she has some semblance of intelligence, after all,” Callis mutters. But still. How does she explain?  
  
August takes pity on her and produces a book out of nowhere. It’s bound in black leather, with gold lettering on the front cover. The Tale Of Callis And Vanessa, the title reads.   
  
“You have a tale?” Agatha asks.   
  
“Stop asking questions,” Callis grumbles.  
  
But Sophie is frozen, staring at the book. “Vanessa... my mother?” She rasps. “She did have a fairy tale.”  
  
“Brilliant observation,” Callis says bitterly. “Ruined her own life, and Stefan’s, and mine too, while we’re at it.”  
  
Sophie snarls, “How dare you-”   
  
“Stop,” August intervenes, opening his book. A cloud of mist appears over it, gradually forming the silhouette of a familiar cottage.  
  
He blows on the scene, and the mist wavers.   
  
“This might be... disconcerting,” he says.   
  
And then the mist is shattering into a million tiny pieces, crashing over the four of them like a storm of glittering crystals, and they are most definitely not in Gavaldon anymore. 


End file.
